Usually known as “Bride’s Cross,” this equal-armed cross is traditionally woven from straw in honor of Ireland’s Saint Bridget (Also known as: Bride, Brighid, Brigid) on her holiday, Candlemas, observed on the second of February.
There is a very strong likelihood that there never was such a personage as St. Bridget, and that she may have been a cover for worship of the Celtic Goddess of the same name.
The cross itself is a type of solar cross, and both the symbol and the woven representation probably predate Christianity in Ireland. Another clue to the identity of Brighid lies in the timing of her holiday, formerly Imbolc (“In milk”), the Celtic observation of the coming of spring with the lactation of the ewes, and sacred to the goddess as protector of livestock.
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